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Washington pot sales surpass $200M in one quarter

Sales of marijuana products are nipping at the heels of hard alcohol and have for the first time surpassed $200 million in a quarter.

Residents and visitors bought more marijuana than ever before in the second quarter of 2016, based on an analysis of purchase and tax records from two state agencies.

In the first quarter of 2016 — January, February and March — people spent $54.8 million more on spirits than marijuana, which includes the cost of the products and its associated taxes. By the second quarter — April, May and June — that gap closed to nearly $37 million. Those amounts include taxes levied by the state on those products. Spirits sales do not include wine and beer. Marijuana sales include all cannabis products, but not paraphernalia.

Marijuana sales in the second quarter of 2016 amounted to nearly $212 million. Spirits sales in the same period amounted to almost $249 million.

In July, the state shuttered medical marijuana shops, making all sales go through licensed recreational marijuana storefronts. Sales at retail pot shops shot up by $66.6 million in the third quarter of the year, to $278.6 million.

Third-quarter figures for spirits, including sales directly to customers and to bars and restaurants, won’t be released until early next year.

Industry leaders say the retail cannabis industry only has room to grow in Washington.

Tacoma opened up its market earlier this year when the City Council changed code to allow up to 16 storefronts within the city limits, while closing all medical shops.

Vicki Christophersen, a lobbyist for the marijuana industry who heads the Washington CannaBusiness Association, said the increasing revenues for marijuana shops show the regulated marketplace is effectively competing against the black market.

“We wouldn’t be selling to that level if we weren’t,” Christophersen said. The price of products on store shelves now, despite the tax, “are competitive with what we thought the black market was at one point.”

Pot bans could fall as taxes lure

Several dozen cities and counties statewide continue to have either an outright ban on marijuana storefronts or have put a pause on their inclusion while councils and commissions consider cannabis rules.

Some cities banned the stores until they could see how the state operated them and what image they would present, said Jim Doherty, a legal consultant with Municipal Research and Services Center, a nonprofit that provides policy guidance for local governments.

“I think some people were afraid these stores would open and there’d be these long-haired people hanging around in vans,” Doherty said. “People have gotten used to the idea that these look like retail stores now.”

And since the Legislature changed how taxes work for marijuana, which allocates $6 million per fiscal year disbursed among the cities and counties that allow stores in their boundaries, Doherty said some jurisdictions may soften their stance by the lure of extra money.

Washington’s taxes on cannabis and spirits are the highest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax policy think tank. Retail marijuana sales include a 37 percent tax on marijuana products at the register.